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DESTIN, Fla. -- The Southeastern Conference sent a strong message to the NCAA on Friday: provide the Power Five some autonomy or they'll form their own division.SEC Commissioner Mike Slive said if the Power Five conferences -- which also include the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12, the Power Ten and the Pac-12 -- don't get the flexibility needed to create their own bylaws, the next step would be to move to "Division IV."
"It's not something we want to do," Slive said on the final day of the SEC meetings. "We want to the ability to have autonomy in areas that has a nexus to the well-being of student athletes. I am somewhat optimistic it will pass, but if it doesn't, our league would certainly want to move to a Division IV. My colleagues, I can't speak for anybody else, but I'd be surprised if they didn't feel the same way."

“ We hope everyone realizes we are moving into a new era and (Division IV) is the way to retain your collegiate model. It would be a disappointment and in my view a mistake not to adapt the model. This is a historic moment. If we don't seize the moment, we'll make a mistake.
” -- SEC commissioner Mike Slive

Moving to Division IV would keep the Power Five under the NCAA umbrella while granting college football's biggest money makers the kind of power to better take care of student-athletes. The SEC, for example, would like to pay full cost of college attendance, provide long-term medical coverage and offer incentives to kids who return to school and complete degrees.

University of Florida President Bernie Machen wasn't nearly as confident about staying in Division I."We're in a squeeze here," Machen said. "There are now six lawsuits that name our conference in them that specifically have to do with the whole cost of attendance and stuff like that. We would like to make changes, but we can't because the NCAA doesn't allow us to. We're really caught between a rock and a hard play. We desperately would like some flexibility."The SEC wants the NCAA steering committee to adopt its proposal for the voting threshold, which would allow the Big Five to pass legislation with more ease. The NCAA board of directors will vote on the steering committee's proposal in August.Currently, the NCAA requires two-thirds vote of the 65 schools and 15 student representatives as well as four out of five conferences."What we fear is that nothing will change because the threshold is so high," Machen said. "We're asking them to lower the threshold, which we propose is 60 percent and three conferences. With three conferences out of five and 60 percent of the 65 and 15, you can make those kinds of changes."

They can leave, which is something that the rest of the NCAA does not want..due to loss of money from the power 4+ACC.

The lawsuits are forcing this along.

Quote:

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (“NCAA”) is an unincorporated organization that governs more than 1200 colleges, universities, athletic conferences, and sports organizations, while managing 360,000 student-athletes and eighty-eight championship events in three divisions.[4] The NCAA institutes a “principle of amateurism” in that student-athletes are amateurs and their participation should be primarily motivated by participation in their intercollegiate sport.[5] It further vows to protect student-athletes from professional and commercial enterprises,[6] and look after the best interests, education, and athletic participation of student-athletes.[7]

Because the NCAA avails itself to these principles, the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) recognizes it as a tax-exempt organization.[8] The NCAA and private universities rely on an exempt status under “§501(c)(3), which provides exemption for charitable organizations such as religious and educational institutions.”[9] In 1976, Congress passed an amendment to this section to make perfectly clear that “national or international amateur sports competition” serve a charitable purpose under the IRC.[10] However, the statute is not without limitations.

Treasury Regulations, Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) interpretations and judicial opinions all attempt to define situations in which charitable organizations may lose their tax-exempt status.[11] For example, the IRS takes the position that a charitable organization loses its exempt status if it confers an “excessive benefit” upon parties outside its charitable class.[12] The “charitable class” in the NCAA’s case would refer to student-athletes.[13] Furthermore, when a charitable organization bases its actions on “substantial” commercial activities, in order to keep its tax-exempt status, Treasury Regulations require the organization to be “in furtherance of” an exempt purpose.[14] In theory, it can be argued that Division I football and basketball programs are providing ‘excessive private benefit’ to television networks and professional sports leagues in relationship to the educational benefits provided to the charitable class.[15]

Universities and appearently the student athletes will be subject to taxes, so go ahead and break away and form your unions and get slapped with taxes and union fees. These geniuses will be crawling back on their stomach begging forgiveness from the NCAA. Like Dabo said not considering a college education as proper compensation devalues a college education.

Universities and appearently the student athletes will be subject to taxes, so go ahead and break away and form your unions and get slapped with taxes and union fees. These geniuses will be crawling back on their stomach begging forgiveness from the NCAA. Like Dabo said not considering a college education as proper compensation devalues a college education.

Taxes can get pretty high. You're talking up to a 50% (with state taxes included) of the money getting snatched.

The big five leaving the NCAA? Yeah, that's 100% of the money getting snatched. You going to tune in to watch New Mexico play North Dakota State? Don't think so.

Things change....the world is so different now than when lots of the NCAA regs were established.

I honestly think someone needs to find a way to counter the huge diversion of student athletes to pro sports. With a few exceptions, all of these players need to finish school and get their degrees before leaving.

I support conferences using leverage to make the NCAA get real. This is only going to get worse.

I think they are all trying to ruin college football. I can remember the days when college student athletes were actually student athletes and used athletics as a way to get an education instead of just using college as a way to play ball and go to the pros. But money talks and thats what its all about.

Universities and appearently the student athletes will be subject to taxes, so go ahead and break away and form your unions and get slapped with taxes and union fees. These geniuses will be crawling back on their stomach begging forgiveness from the NCAA. Like Dabo said not considering a college education as proper compensation devalues a college education.

maybe I am missing something but I do believe the Division 4 will be tax exempt as well. The NFL is tax exempt and the Division 4 will be the same way under 501(c)(6) not 501(c)(3). This how the NFL is tax exempt.

Quote:

Instead, Section 501(c)(6) exempts from taxation "business leagues, chambers of commerce, real estate boards, boards of trade, or professional football leagues (whether or not administering a pension fund for football players), not organized for profit … ."

Jeffrey Tenenbaum, a Washington D.C. attorney who chairs the nonprofit organizations group at Venable LLP, says Section 501(c)(6) essentially exempts from taxation, "an organization whose primary purpose is to further the industry or profession it represents."